Two Way Slab Direct Design Method

ACI 318 provides two alternative methods for designing two-way slabs for concrete, The equivalent frame method? (EFM) and the direct design method (DDM). This section will explain how the direct design method is used.

For the Direct Design Method moments are found using a simplified procedure similar to analyzing a One-Way Slab.

The Conditions:

The following conditions must be met to use the DDM:

Panels must be rectangular in shape with a ratio of the long side to the short side of no more than 2 (this ensures that the slab acts as a two-way slab).

The loading consists of uniformly distributed gravity loads.

The live load does not exceed two times the dead load

There are a minimum of three spans.

If there are beams are present, the relative stiffness in two perpendicular directions, 0.2 < α1l22/α2l12 < 5.0

Successive span lengths do not differ by 1/3 of the longest span.

And Columns are not offset by more than 10% of the span in the direction of the offset. While designing two-way slabs, column offsets will not be considered, this is why the offset must remain small (L.T. 10%). For large column offsets neither the DDM or EFM can be used, instead a finite element model must be used to calculate the moment in the slab.

Direct Design Method Steps:

Step 1:

Divide the slab into wide beams (Similar to a tributary area method but how the equations are set up I believe basically voids this idea, it is just good for visualization of the problem).

Step 2:

Calculate the total moment in each span using ACI 13.6.2.2[1]

M_O = {w_ul_2l_n^2\over{8}}

where:

MO = The total momentwu = The total factored distributed load (See Concrete LRFD to understand the required loading factors)l2 = the width of the wide beamln = face to face of the columns or other supports (note that ln ≥ 0.65l1)

l1 = center to center of the columns or supports

Note: The idea is to find a maximum moment in a beam spanning ln carrying a load wul2.

Step 3:

The Moment (MO) for each span must be distributed up into positive and negative moments according to the tables below: